Yarden!

Everybody who thinks I’m crazy because I spend so much time “weeding the yard” can make up a nice sauce for eating their words with.

For those who haven’t been part of this journey, here’s the story of the yarden.

Since I wrote that post, five years ago, the “yarden” portion has spread, and the grass has receded even more. Every year, I’m delighted to see how much more volunteer native ground cover we have, and how much less grass.

To be fair, there still is *some* grass. We’re having a kid come mow every couple of weeks to keep it under control. I’m sure he thinks that I’m crazy–I walked him all over, showing him what NOT to mow. But the grass is less than it was, a lot less.

And the ground covers are more, and they are beautiful. Petra has been delightedly learning about all of the things growing in the yard that she can nibble, from dandelion greens to dead nettle flowers. I feel totally fine letting her eat that stuff. It’s never seen a pesticide.

Every year, we see new kinds of birds. The other day, I spotted a sparrow hawk on my porch railing, drawn, I’m sure, by the redwing blackbirds, robins, bluebirds, cardinals, orioles, nuthatches, wrens, and phoebes that now flock to our yarden.

Goals for the summer:

• I want to finish The Pit and turn it into a water feature. Fingers crossed on this one…
• Continue battling poison ivy, aka, the only thing I will use Round Up on.
• Improve outdoor hangouts, literally. We got the kids some hanging pod things, and I am hoping to get myself a nice hammock.
• Plant some oak leaf hydrangeas along the sides of the porch to mask a particularly unsightly bit of under-porch storage.
• Maybe another tree?
• Enjoy my freedom from monoculture.